


The Merits of Truth or Dare

by planetarydaydream



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:27:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28415373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/planetarydaydream/pseuds/planetarydaydream
Summary: Lily finally agrees to go on a date with James.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	The Merits of Truth or Dare

The fire burned brightly in the Gryffindor common room as Lily worked on her potions essay. She had always enjoyed potions, and was quite good at it too, but did not enjoy the thirty inch parchment essays Slughorn would assign. She had never quite gotten the hang of using a quill and ink, and would still much prefer a pen instead. 

Remus sat in the cozy armchair beside her, his quill flying across the paper in a surprisingly neat scrawl. They often did homework together, as they had grown closer when they were both made prefects. 

Everything was quiet and peaceful, until James and Sirius walked in through the portrait hole, bearing bottles of fire whiskey.

“Where’s you get those?” Lily asked, raising an eyebrow.

“A marauder never reveals his secrets,” said James, giving her a wink. Lily rolled her eyes. 

“Let’s play a game!” said Sirius, after taking a large swig from one of his bottles.

“What game?” asked Marlene as she came down the girls dorm stairs with Dorcas.

“Truth or dare!” suggested Peter.

“Yes!” said Sirius, finger gunning.

James, Sirius and Peter sat down on one of the worn leather couches in the middle of the common room. Marlene, Dorcas, Alice, Mary and Frank sat down in the chairs around them. 

Remus hadn’t looked up from his essay, until Sirius beckoned him to join the party. “Moony! Come play!” 

“No thanks,” he said, returning to his writing.

“Please! I brought you chocolate!” Sirius said, making puppy dog eyes.

At that, Remus caved. “Fine. But only if Lily plays too,” he said, smirking.

James perked up at the idea, but quickly tried to play it cool. Ever since they had become head boy and girl, James had stopped embarrassingly pining after her. And Lily found that she actually liked having him as a friend. As arrogant and annoying as Potter was, he had proved that underneath he was actually kind and caring. 

“Come on Lils!” said Alice, who was sitting on a small armchair with Frank.

“Fine,” she sighed, and sat in the large red bean bag chair next to Mary. Remus smiled, and sat beside Sirius on the Marauders’ couch.

“Okay, Dorcas, truth or dare?” said James, dramatically pointing at her.

“Truth,” 

“Is it true that you still owe me three galleons from when I bet you I could knock the Slytherin chaser off his broom twice?”

“Yes,” she said, rolling her eyes and she handed over the money. James handed her the fire whiskey bottle and she took a swig. “Mary! Truth or dare?” asked Dorcas.

“Truth,” she responded.

“Is it true that you kissed Caradoc after the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff match?” she said.

Mary blushed. “Yeah,” she said sheepishly. The gang responded with ‘ooo’s, and she blushed even more.

“Was he a good kisser?” inquired Alice.

“You can only ask one question each turn!” said Mary, defensively.

“I guess that means no,” said Remus, and they laughed. 

Mary quickly changed the subject. “Sirius! Truth or dare!” 

“Dare,” he responded, without hesitation.

“I dare you to kiss the hottest person in the room!” she said, smirking.

Sirius slowly scanned the circle of friends, making dramatic faces at each person. Then, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a small hand mirror, fixed his hair, and then kissed his reflection. 

“Done,” Sirius said, grinning. Lily rolled her eyes once again. “Lily!” he called. She raised an eyebrow at him. Sirius just grinned even wider. “Truth or dare?” he asked. 

Lily didn’t want to seem like a chicken, so she answered. “Dare,” she said smugly.

“I dare you to go to Hogsmeade with James on Sunday!” he said excitedly. James gaped at him in shock.

Lily threw her head back and laughed. “As if!”

“You can’t chicken out on a dare! Unless... You want to drink this entire bottle!” Sirius exclaimed.

He held up a bottle of fire whiskey that was three quarters of the way full. Lily grimaced at the idea. She had never been a big fan of fire whiskey. But she wouldn’t chicken out of a dare.

“Fine. I’ll go to hogsmeade with you,” she started. James perked up immediately. “But only if... You can score eight goals at the Quidditch match tomorrow!” she finished.

Lily didn’t know much about Quidditch. She didn’t really go to the games, unless Remus dragged her along. But she thought eight goals seemed like a lot, and even if it wasn’t, going to Hogsmeade with James couldn’t be that bad, right?

James grinned. “Sure thing,” he said, as he got up from the couch and started to walk away.

“Where are you going?” asked Sirius.

“To sleep! We have a match tomorrow, and now I have even more incentive to win,” he said, winking at Lily. 

“Boo!” said Sirius.

“I’m heading up too,” said Remus. 

“Boo!” repeated Sirius. 

And soon enough, everyone vacated the common room and went to sleep. 

——

The morning of the Quidditch game, Lily accidentally slept in. She still used her muggle alarm clock, but sometimes it malfunctioned at Hogwarts. It was a Saturday, so she pulled on her red and gold Gryffindor jumper and paired it with her favourite jeans. She then ran down to the great hall, where her friends were already eating their breakfast. 

Lily sat down beside Alice and grabbed a scone from the centre of table. Everyone was buzzing about the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw match in the afternoon. She didn’t pay much attention to Quidditch, but she had heard James complaining about their losses to Ravenclaw before.

“You’re coming to watch, right Lily? I’m commentating,” said Remus.

“Of course I am!” She responded.

“Come on! We have to go warm up!” said James to the quidditch players.

“The game isn’t for two hours!” complained Marlene.

“We have to get as much practice as possible if we’re going to beat Ravenclaw!” James responded. He was a very dedicated captain, especially when the team was in behind.

Begrudgingly, Sirius, Frank, Marlene, Alice, Caradoc and Gideon followed James to the pitch. Lily finished up her breakfast, and headed back to the common room with Remus. Dorcas, Mary and Pete were chatting behind them.

Lily pulled out her astronomy homework and sat beside Remus at their designated study spot. He was reading the book she had lent him yesterday, Jane Eyre, and was already three quarters of the way through. 

“Aren’t you going to work on astronomy before the game?” she asked.

He looked up from the book, his gold-rimmed John Lennon glasses glinting with the fire light. “Nah. Sirius will help me with it later. He knows all about that shit. It’s a tradition in ‘The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black’,”

Lily would have asked him to help her too, but she didn’t want to owe Sirius Black a favour. Who knows what she’d’ve ended  
up having to do. She turned back to her parchment.

“So, are you gonna do it?” said Remus.

“Do what?” 

“Go out with James,” 

“He hasn’t scored eight goals yet,” she said, avoiding the question.

“But if he does?” 

“I dunno,” Lily said, turning back to her homework. Remus simply smirked knowingly and turned back to his book.

—

Later, at the game, Lily sat by the commentator seat, right in the front row.  
It’s was pretty chilly out, and she, Mary and Dorcas were sharing a large gold and red knit blanket. Dorcas was trying to explain to her the rules of quidditch.

“...And the seeker is trying to catch this little golden ball called the snitch, that flies around really fast. When the snitch is caught, the game is over,”

“So if Alice catches the snitch we win?” Lily asked.

“Well... Not necessarily. Catching the snitch gives a team a hundred and fifty points, but the team with the most points wins. So even if Alice does catch the snitch, Ravenclaw could still win,” explained Dorcas.

“Oh,” Lily said. She had always found this game confusing. Sports were never really her thing. In first year, she had quite enjoyed flying on a broom, and in second year Marlene had urged her to try out for the team, but she didn’t like all the other game aspects of quidditch. And besides, it would have meant that she would be spending quite a lot of time with James, who had been much more annoying and arrogant back then.

Then suddenly, the Gryffindor team flew into the pitch, waving to their friends in the stands. Marlene flew right up and Dorcas gave her a good luck kiss. James gave Lily an award winning smile from afar. Her cheeks reddened, and not only from the cold.

Her stuffed her mouth with some of the popcorn Mary had brought, as the Ravenclaw team came out as well. And soon enough, the game was on.

“Fabian takes the quaffle, and tosses it to James, who scores! Twenty points to Gryffindor! Now, Ravenclaw beater Maria Bennett has a bludgeon and holy shit! That looked like it hurt, but nonetheless, the queen Marlene prevails!”

“Language, Mr. Lupin!” McGonnagall scolds.

“Sorry, professor. Anyways, Hector Fawn now takes the quaffle from Kalya Inad and he shoots... and scores because Frank was too busy staring at Alice from across the pitch. Ten points to Ravenclaw! However, it seems as though Alice has caught sight of the snitch! And... It’s gone again,”

Lily watched as her friends soared gracefully across the pitch. Quidditch was much more entertaining than football. Though, she did still have her astronomy work to do. She decided to try and finish it. 

“James scores again! Thirty points to Gryffindor! That’s four so far,” Remus said, winking at Lily as she looked up from her notebook. James was already halfway there, maybe eight goals wasn’t as much as she had thought.

“It’s sixty to twenty for Gryffindor, but the Ravenclaw seeker Eddie Mannon is going for the snitch, with Alice not far behind. And — Woah! Francis Finn hits a bludger straight for Alice, knocking her off her broom! Luckily, she manages to hold on, but that was definitely a penalty!”

Remus argues with the referee, but Lily is focused on Alice, who is still hanging down from her broom. She manages to pull herself back up onto it, but her nose is bleeding. Frank is focused on her, when Lily sees a Ravenclaw chaser with the quaffle coming towards the thirty point goal. 

Luckily, James manages to see what’s going on and takes the quaffle back. He’s bringing it back to the Ravenclaw side, and scores once again, getting twenty points for Gryffindor. The crowd cheers, and James does his signature James Potter grin. He then turns back to Lily, and gives her a wink. That’s five goals so far. 

Lily turns back to her homework. If she’s to go on a date, she’ll have no time to finish it. She’s already accepted her fate, and really, it can’t be that bad. The last time James asked her out was fourth year, and she had done a bat bogey hex on him for it. Ever since then, he had actually been a good friend to her. They were head boy and girl, after all, and had grown closer. 

Whenever she did look up from her work, it seemed as though the whole Gryffindor team was rooting for James. None of the other chasers even took a shot. Sirius and Marlene made sure to do everything possible to stop anyone from catching the snitch, whether it was Alice or Eddie. This seemed to be confusing the Ravenclaws, as Marlene hit a bludger right in front of Alice, so that she had to stop in her tracks to avoid it right before catching the snitch. Alice made a face, but Marlene simply pointed at James, who was up ahead, scoring yet another goal. 

Despite the strange gameplay, Ravenclaw was still quite in behind, and Remus seemed to keep rubbing in. He was probably still mad at Maria, who had asked Sirius out a couple weeks ago, unbeknownst he already had a boyfriend. 

Lily was almost done the astronomy chart when she heard a loud cheer coming from the entire Gryffindor stand. She looked up, and it seemed as though James had scored another goal. It was very likely the whole year had found out about their little bet. 

“And that is James’s eighth goal! Looks like Peter owes me three galleons!” called Remus.

Lily looked to her right to see Peter angrily hand over his money to Remus.

“Looks like you’ve got a date tomorrow, Evans,” said Dorcas.

“Yeah, looks like it,” said Lily. Across the pitch, James looked positively ardent. She couldn’t help but grin.

Still, the games wasn’t over yet. Alice was zooming across the pitch, Eddie not far behind her, chasing after the little golden ball. Alice was reaching out, almost sliding off her broom, as they passed the Gryffindor goal posts. She and Frank shared a look, as she jumped from her broom and caught the snitch! The crowd went wild, as Frank caught her in his arms.

Gryffindor won! Lily stood up in the stands and cheered, Dorcas, Mary and Peter beside her. Remus cheered as well, before receiving a look from McGonagall, and then he also congratulated Ravenclaw for their efforts.

Soon enough, the players all went back to the change rooms, and the viewers were evacuating the stands. Lily walked out with Remus, who was spreading the word about the victory party in the Gryffindor common room after dinner. The marauders always threw the best parties, that was a known fact. They always managed to bring in the best food, and alcohol as well, somehow. Even as a prefect, she knew better than to try and shut them down.

Lily spent the rest of the day reading, putting the finishing touches on her homework, and thinking about her first date the next day.

—

At dinner, the Gryffindors all ate very little, as the wanted to get a way and go to the party as fast as possible. Lily was sure the entire house was going, even the little first years.

Lily changed out of her jumper and put on a green crochet halter top that she had gotten from her parents for Christmas, and a white mini skirt. She put on a pair of wedges that brought her up to James’s height, though she knew she’d still be much shorter than Remus. She did a quick spell to curl her hair, and then went downstairs, where the party had already started.

There were even more Gryffindor banners than normal, and the lions moved around on them, just like the wizard portraits. There were all sorts of different crisps, and many bottles of fire whiskey laying about. The record player was enchanted to keep playing and to switch through each record that had been added to the pile by the guests. Dorcas, Mary and Marlene were all dancing to Waterloo.

“Waterloo, couldn’t escape if I wanted to,

Waterloo, knowing my fate is to be with you!”

Marlene was singing along, completely off key, but smiling nonetheless as Dorcas laughed.

Lily had never been much of a dancer, so she sat on the arm of the couch and ate some of crisps. Sirius plopped down beside her.

“Hey Lils! Fancy a drink?” he said, offering her a cup of Witches Brew. Gratefully, she took it, drank a large swig of the sweet liquid and then handed it back to him. He took a swig as well.

“Love the outfit, by the way, very groovy,” he said.

“Cheers,” she said. “Where you you get all this stuff, anyways?” 

“A marauder never reveals his secrets,” winked Sirius. Lily rolled her eyes, as that seemed to be the go to phrase whenever one of the marauders was being asked about one of their many strange behaviours. She’d find out someday. Maybe James would tell her tomorrow. “You excited for your date? You’re welcome, by the way,” Sirius said.

“Maybe a little. Don’t tell James that though!” she said, not wanting to lie to her friend.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said.

Then, Remus walked over and sat right beside Sirius. He was smoking a cigarette.

“Hey Moony! Can I have a drag?” asked Sirius. Remus handed it to him, and Sirius put it between his lips, and quickly started coughing. Remus and Lily both laughed. Sirius tried much to hard to be ‘punk rock’. 

Lily never smoked. Nasty habit, as she saw it. Both her parents did though, and being around all the second hand smoke was suffocating.

“Why don’t you go smoke that outside? You’re polluting the air,” she said.

“Okay. Come with?” Remus said to Sirius.  
He quickly obliged and they bit he went out to sit on the tower.

Peter was dancing along with Mary and Gideon, and he was surprisingly good. Marlene and Dorcas were probably off snogging somewhere by now. Lily scanned the room for someone to talk to, when she saw James coming towards her.

“Potter,” she said.

“Evans,” he replied.

“Come to brag?” she joked.

“No! No, I would never. I actually can to tell you that... You don’t have to go out with me. I just took the challenge for fun anyways, to see if I could do it. I understand that you probably don’t want to, and we’re good friends now, anyways,” James said awkwardly.

Lily pondered this, for a moment. “Yeah, we are. But I would never chicken out on a dare, and you won the bet fair and square. Looks like you’re going to be stuck with me tomorrow, Potter,” she said.

At this, James smiled, a real genuine James Potter grin. “Yeah! Meet me by the portrait hole at eleven?”

“See you then,” Lily agreed.

“Great! Cheers, Lily,” he said as he ran off, probably to tell Sirius.

Lily looked up at the clock. It was half past twelve. She decided to go to bed, as she had to get up and get ready for her date.

——

After breakfast the next day, Lily quickly ran upstairs to go get ready. Alice came with her.

“So, what are you wearing for you big date?” Alice asked.

“It’s not a big date, really. I’m just going to wear my green dress and red shoes,” Lily said, pulling the dress about of the wardrobe. It was an emerald green velvet dress with bell sleeves. She had bought it over the summer, hoping for an occasion to wear it. Now was the time. 

“You have to lend me that sometime! It’s gorgeous! I swear, muggle fashion is so much better,” Alice gushed.

She put it on, along with her red boots. She tied her hair with a scarf, and Alice did her makeup with a new spell she had picked up. Luckily, it worked, and her eyeliner was perfect on both sides.

Then, Lily went down to meet James. She ducked through the portrait hole, where James was already waiting. He was wearing a red button up with some flare jeans and a suede jacket. It was a little odd seeing him dressed normally, having been used to seeing him wearing wizard robes all the time.

“You look great,” he said, almost shyly.

“Thanks, so do you,” she replied sincerely. He grinned. 

“I got you some flowers, they’re lilies! You know, because—“ 

“Because I’m Lily,” she laughed as he handed her the bouquet of orange flowers, Tiger Lilies, they must’ve been. “Cheers, Potter. I’ll go put these in some water, then let’s go!” She said, ducking back through the portrait hole after whispering the password. 

“Accio Vase!” she called. Soon enough, a blue vase flew towards her. She caught it, filling it with water using an aguamenti, and then placed the lilies inside. She then went back out to meet James, who was playing with one of the little golden snitches. He caught it, closed its wings, and put it in his pocket. Lily always thought this was odd, since he was never even the seeker, but it was a very James Potter thing to do.

They met up with Remus, Sirius, and Peter, who were heading out to go to Hogsmeade.

“Hey Lils! Nice dress!” complimented Remus.

“Thanks Rem! What are you three doing?” she asked.

“We’re going to go to Zonko’s for—” Peter started, before Sirius stomped on his foot with his shiny black bovver boot. “Ow!” Peter squealed, before regaining his composure.

“We’re just going to browse,” Remus said. Lily raised an eyebrow, but she was sure whatever they were planning would be funny in the end and decided not to try and spoil it.

She and James walked down into Hogsmeade with them, but they ran off in the direction of the joke shop soon enough, leaving Lily alone with her date.

“So, do you fancy a pint?” James asked her. “Of butterbeer, of course,” He said.

“Sure,” she said.

They walked up to the Three Broomsticks, and James pushed up his glasses and ran his fingers through his hair. Lily snorted a laugh.

“What?” he asked, confused.

“Oh, you just seem to do that a lot, you know, mess up your hair,” she said.

“Oh yeah? Have you been watching me?” He joked.

“No! I’ve just been seeing you a lot more, you know, since we are head boy and girl,” 

“Right,” he said. They walked into the pub, which was filled with Hogwarts students. Lily sat down at a table by the window, while James ordered their drinks. He then sat on the opposite side of the table and handed her a butterbeer. She quickly thanked him.

She glanced out the window, and saw a black dog, sitting just outside the pub. A stray, it must’ve been, as she often saw it around the Hogwarts grounds. Remus quickly ran by and shooed it away. He saw her looking, smiled awkwardly, and then ran away again. James didn’t find this very odd, and rolled his eyes. He then turned back to her.

“So,”

“So,” she said. “I bet you’ve been waiting a long time for this,” she joked.

“Well ... Yeah, I suppose,” he said as he messed up his dark hair once again.

Lily was surprised. This was completely unlike James, to be nervous and all that. He must actually like her, she thought. 

They then chatted on about all sorts of things, from muggle films and music, to their opinions of their teachers.

“...and Slughorn just loves you! You’re even in his little club! I might be doing well enough, but you’re definitely the teachers pet,” James said.

“Oh sod off Potter! As if you aren’t McGonagall’s favourite by far! You transfigured all the Slytherin’s robes into bright pink ones just Wednesday and you only had one night’s detention!”

“Even if I did get more detention it would have been worth it! The looks on their faces...” James laughed. 

“So what are you and your marauders planning anyways?”

“You really want to know?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah,”

“Well, you have to swear you won’t tell a soul,” he said.

Lily jokingly put her hand on her heart. “I solemnly swear,”

“Okay. Remus just learned this spell that makes ducks come out of a wand whenever a spell is cast. In charms tomorrow we’re going to cast it on everyone as a distraction. Then, Peter and Remus are going to sneak out and plant dung bombs to distract Filch and Mrs. Norris. Meanwhile, Sirius and I will fill everyone’s goblets with Elixir to Induce Euphoria, though we’ll cloak it so it looks perfectly normal. Now, one of the main side effects of that is excessive singing, so we’re hoping to lead a chorus of Bohemian Rhapsody, ” said James excitedly.

“Three pranks in one, that’s far out!” said Lily.

“You think so?”

“Yeah. You know, you really aren’t so bad,” Lily mused.

James laughed. “Well, good to know,”

“I was actually wondering, could you help me out in defence against the dark arts? I haven’t been able to get a corporeal patronus yet, and I know you already have yours...” she trailed off.

“Sure! Maybe... Tomorrow, after lessons?” 

“Okay, cool,”

“Cool,” he said, messing up his hair again, subconsciously.

“We’d better get back, it’s almost dinner,” Lily said.

They both got up at the same time, and walked up to the door. James opened it for her, and she felt a chill. Lily shivered. James quickly took off his jacket, and put it over her shoulders, like in those muggle romance movies. 

“Thanks, Potter,” she said.

“My pleasure, as always, Evans,” 

Lily quickly decided to simply go for it, and kissed him on the cheek. His mouth formed an ‘o’ in surprise. They then saw Remus, Sirius, Peter and Mary coming towards them.

“How was the date?” asked Sirius.

“I’m sure James already plans to give you the complete play by play,” Lily said with a laugh. “Come on, we’d better head back, or we’ll miss dinner,” 

And with that, the group headed back to the castle, Lily and James hand in hand.


End file.
